I have a great story to tell you.
The night smelled like rain and electricity. Something was brewing behind the clouds, maybe a storm. Olive wanted it to thunder. She needed a thrill. Her mother was asleep on the couch, snoring slightly. It was only too easy to slip out the side door. Sarah was waiting for her a block away, sitting on the curb and sipping a Big Gulp.
“Hey girl, that was fast.”
“Yeah, the soothing tones of Alex Trebek were too much for Melanie to handle. Where do you want to go?”
Sarah looked up from her phone, her face bathed in blue light. “Mac and them are over in the woods. We could meet them?”
“Sure, yeah let’s go.” The two girls walked the short distance quickly. The wind was picking up.
In the park, Mac had a fire going. Flames danced merrily upwards, sending out warmth and light. Olive and Sarah were only too happy to join the group huddled around the fire. Someone was strumming a guitar and marshmallows were turning the perfect golden brown in the flame. Their friend Sasha was in the process of lecturing a guy about the benefits of kale.
Olive yawned. She was bored. “Anyone want to hear a scary story?”
The others stopped what they were doing and nodded. They were intrigued.
“Ever heard about the time a group of hikers got lost in these woods?” Olive began to tell a story that was designed to thrill her audience. Her voice lowered and her eyes narrowed into slits. She used her hands to demonstrate the terrible crimes committed against the hikers. With each word she spoke, the air hanging over the campfire grew thicker. The light seemed to struggle against the weight of her words. The listeners gasped and moved closer to the fire, away from the dark edges of the clearing. As Olive spoke, the rain began. It gained strength with her words, putting out the fire, and in turn the light and warmth the group had been enveloped in. As Olive finished her story, everyone was shivering. She regretted telling the scary story, but it was too late. Her story had introduced fear and evil into the world of the clearing. It had drowned out the light, the music, and even the marshmallows. She had underestimated the power of the story in her search for entertainment.
The group disbanded. Everyone went home.
Thoughts on Storytelling
I told this story (with a little less detail) to my boyfriend. I found that I used my hands and my face to convey emotion that my words alone could not. I felt kind of powerful when telling the story, like the tone of my voice could illicit a certain reaction from my listener. I also noticed that the story underwent edits every time I told it. Small details could change or be removed, as long as the overall theme stayed in place.
Hi Mikayla!
I really enjoyed reading your story. My favourite part is your description of nature when Olive is telling the scary story to the group. This made the story even more chilling for me and I was able to get a sense of evil coming into the world. I think I was also intrigued because telling scary stories around a fire is a common experience and I haven’t experienced someone taking a scary story seriously before, but your story grasps the power and significance of story telling very well. I also can relate to your thoughts on story telling because I felt I could portray more emotion through my spoken words and I noticed myself changing little details as well. I noticed when writing my story I didn’t feel quite as connected as when I was speaking out loud. Did you feel more connected to your story when writing or speaking it?
Thanks for the great reading experience and I look forward to reading more of your blog posts!
– Chloë
Hi Chlöe!
Thank you for your comment! I think I felt more personally connected to the story when I was writing it. At that point, it was all mine to change and shape into whatever I wanted. After telling it out loud, it felt less like mine, and more like a shared story or experience. That being said, speaking it made me feel more connected to the people around me, my audience. I also think telling the story out loud helped me understand my story better, and what ideas I wanted my listener to take away from it.
Hi Mikayla! I loved your story, and thought you did a very good job echoing the original. I liked that you were able to bring it into a modern setting.
When I was reading the beginning, I found myself expecting the teens to be sneaking out to go participate in bad behaviour (i.e. drinking or drugs). Even though I knew the direction of the story was suppose to go in, I was still surprised. It is interesting to think that the damaging behaviour they are engaging in is the telling of a bad story. I think the cautions of storytelling is something we don’t focus on in main stream society. We warn each other to be careful around harmful substances, or in dangerous situations, but we don’t do that in relation to stories. However, as we saw in this week’s lesson, stories are very powerful. I thought your story did illustrate this idea.
– Tillie
Hi Tillie,
Thanks for your insightful comment! I did consider having alcohol/drugs be the evil in the story, before ultimately deciding against it. As a teenager the things that had the most impact on me were stories, mostly the ones that came from my peers. I agree that this week’s lesson illustrated how words and stories can be extremely powerful and influential, at any age.
hi mikayla!
i really enjoyed reading your story. i especially appreciated how you focused more on the act of storytelling then on the story itself. storytelling became the story and the action. it was about the action, emotion and presence of the story itself. i think this was really effective as a response story ti the one we read. and i also agree with yours and fillie’s above comments – the most darkest thing about being young and growing up seemed to be the stories being told about each other, and the pain our words produced.
best,
stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for your kind words! Stories are so powerful, this assignment definitely reminded me to be more conscious of the ones I tell and the ones I listen to. And yes, I’m pretty glad that the teenage years are behind me. Phew!